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Birthright
A novel of consummate dramatic sweep and emotional force, BIRTHRIGHT is the story of a father and daughter locked in a bitter contest for control of the world's most legendary banking house.
Reared in the splendid excess of her family's London home and country estate; blessed with beauty and a precocious intelligence that has already captured the eye of her empire-building grandfather, Deborah de Kronenegold has everything, or so it seems. But her childhood equilibrium is shattered when she discovers that she is adopted, and when she becomes the object of her father Leslie's malevolence. Upon the deaths of her her grandfather Samuel and her lovely and ill-fated mother Madeleine--and the mysterious disappearance of the will naming deborah Samuel's principal heir--Leslie sets in motion a series of shocking and irrevocable events. Deborah is turned out, and with nothing but her resolve to claim her birthright, she moves to New York, and starts to build a financial empire to rival her father's--and to bring him down.
BIRTHIGHT is also a constellation of passionate love there is Bash, Deborah's first love, whose heritage forbids him what he most desires; and David, who offers Deborah wealth and security and adoration--but at a terrible price. Finally, there is the story of another love affair--set in distant war-torn Italy, which unlocks the secret of Deborah's birthright.
As played out against the glamorous world of international finance, and set in the boardrooms of London, Paris, and New York, in sumptuous townhouses, chateaus, and penthouses, and in Italy and in in modern Israel, BIRTHRIGHT cuts a grand and satisfying swath. It is a triumph of the unexpected that will hold the reader captivated right up to its surprising conclusion.
INCLUDES AN OPENING EXCERPT FROM JOSEPH AMIEL'S NOVEL "DEEDS."
Reared in the splendid excess of her family's London home and country estate; blessed with beauty and a precocious intelligence that has already captured the eye of her empire-building grandfather, Deborah de Kronenegold has everything, or so it seems. But her childhood equilibrium is shattered when she discovers that she is adopted, and when she becomes the object of her father Leslie's malevolence. Upon the deaths of her her grandfather Samuel and her lovely and ill-fated mother Madeleine--and the mysterious disappearance of the will naming deborah Samuel's principal heir--Leslie sets in motion a series of shocking and irrevocable events. Deborah is turned out, and with nothing but her resolve to claim her birthright, she moves to New York, and starts to build a financial empire to rival her father's--and to bring him down.
BIRTHIGHT is also a constellation of passionate love there is Bash, Deborah's first love, whose heritage forbids him what he most desires; and David, who offers Deborah wealth and security and adoration--but at a terrible price. Finally, there is the story of another love affair--set in distant war-torn Italy, which unlocks the secret of Deborah's birthright.
As played out against the glamorous world of international finance, and set in the boardrooms of London, Paris, and New York, in sumptuous townhouses, chateaus, and penthouses, and in Italy and in in modern Israel, BIRTHRIGHT cuts a grand and satisfying swath. It is a triumph of the unexpected that will hold the reader captivated right up to its surprising conclusion.
INCLUDES AN OPENING EXCERPT FROM JOSEPH AMIEL'S NOVEL "DEEDS."
- GenresFiction
507 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 28, 1980
12 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Amiel
27 books8 followersJoseph Amiel is an internationally best-selling novelist, screenwriter, web series creator, and lawyer. His most recent fiction is a small collection of short stories entitled Death Can Delight: A Trio of Mysteries. He is the author of the novels Stalking the Sky, Birthright, Deeds, Star Time, and A Question of Proof. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. He wrote the cult horror-film classic Daughters of Darkness. His comedy screenplay "Games" has been honored at film festivals, as has his comedy-mystery web series "Ain't That Life." A graduate of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Amherst College and Yale Law School, he is married and lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 25, 2013
Reasons I decided to read this book:
1) I was bored
2) It was the only book my mother owned that wasn't either a cookbook or how to knit a doily kind of book.
3) It didn't look like she was taking me to the library anytime soon, so I had to settle.
The category it fills on my bingo board is: a book that has been made into a movie and it could also fall under A book with a main female character.
What I hate about seeing a movie that has created from a beloved read of mine, is that nothing is quite right. It might be the way that the casting is all wrong (for the last damn time! Annabeth's hair is blonde not bloody red! All children of Athena mut have BLONDE hair! Seriously! Why is this so hard for the caster person to understand?). It might be that they do not move or sound at all the way you pictured or heard them in your head. (Why do you sound like a grizzly bear, Captain Haddock?). And sometimes the offense is serious, like when the scene from the perfect book has been taken and destroyed mercilessly at the hands of the director. (Dude! Voldemort died like a regular man! He fell to the floor with a mundane finality! It was important! Why the hell did he turn into butterflied in the movie??).
This was the terrible misfortune that befell Birthright. The stupid director changed many of the main ideas of the book, till it was no longer the brutal, touching story of a strong ambitious girl, who finds herself orphaned even amongst her adoptive family and takes her future into her own hands till she succeeds in building herself a bright future, but the silly traipsing of a flirt who wins by stealing men's hearts.
My favourite character was definitely Deborah De Kronengold. She was such a strong, beautiful character that every reader could not help but to feel a connection with her. We were also given the opportunity to watch Deborah's personality grow and change over the years. In the beginning we met and fell in love with the bright, playful girl of around 7, who is witty and extremely cheeky, and has not yet discovered her true heritage. At this stage in the novel, Deborah is carefree and happy, not a worry on her mind. We cry with her as her adoptive father recklessly lets slip she is adopted and for the first time a seed of sadness and doubt is planted in her heart and watch as her personality becomes more serious and insecure. Why did her parents not want her? Was she not good enough? We delight as she grows to be stronger, bearing the hardships along the way and working hard and fighting for everything she believes in. What I so admire about Deborah, is that in the time this book was written, women were just starting to work and they had certainly never owned their own business, and Deborah will not give up till she manages to fulfil her dream.
My favourite quote is "You adopted me, but you never truly accepted me as your own and for that, Leslie De Kronengold, you deserve every bit of misfortune about to befall you." Yes, I loved this quote. It really touched me because as a reader I was really beginning to feel a lot of personal hatred towards the fictional Mr. Kronengold, who as Deborah said, adopted but never accepted her. It really struck me that when Deborah said this, it was the voice of the vulnerable child who had been in desperate need of love or simply acceptance from her "father" and was instead given hatred and abuse, who spoke.
Something I learnt, or rather that I was reminded of was that, the future really is up to you. When times seem bleakest, fight because you know that you're not going to achieve anything by just sitting there and moping.
Hey Ms Berry! Hope you're not too tired from marking our reviews! Good Luck!
1) I was bored
2) It was the only book my mother owned that wasn't either a cookbook or how to knit a doily kind of book.
3) It didn't look like she was taking me to the library anytime soon, so I had to settle.
The category it fills on my bingo board is: a book that has been made into a movie and it could also fall under A book with a main female character.
What I hate about seeing a movie that has created from a beloved read of mine, is that nothing is quite right. It might be the way that the casting is all wrong (for the last damn time! Annabeth's hair is blonde not bloody red! All children of Athena mut have BLONDE hair! Seriously! Why is this so hard for the caster person to understand?). It might be that they do not move or sound at all the way you pictured or heard them in your head. (Why do you sound like a grizzly bear, Captain Haddock?). And sometimes the offense is serious, like when the scene from the perfect book has been taken and destroyed mercilessly at the hands of the director. (Dude! Voldemort died like a regular man! He fell to the floor with a mundane finality! It was important! Why the hell did he turn into butterflied in the movie??).
This was the terrible misfortune that befell Birthright. The stupid director changed many of the main ideas of the book, till it was no longer the brutal, touching story of a strong ambitious girl, who finds herself orphaned even amongst her adoptive family and takes her future into her own hands till she succeeds in building herself a bright future, but the silly traipsing of a flirt who wins by stealing men's hearts.
My favourite character was definitely Deborah De Kronengold. She was such a strong, beautiful character that every reader could not help but to feel a connection with her. We were also given the opportunity to watch Deborah's personality grow and change over the years. In the beginning we met and fell in love with the bright, playful girl of around 7, who is witty and extremely cheeky, and has not yet discovered her true heritage. At this stage in the novel, Deborah is carefree and happy, not a worry on her mind. We cry with her as her adoptive father recklessly lets slip she is adopted and for the first time a seed of sadness and doubt is planted in her heart and watch as her personality becomes more serious and insecure. Why did her parents not want her? Was she not good enough? We delight as she grows to be stronger, bearing the hardships along the way and working hard and fighting for everything she believes in. What I so admire about Deborah, is that in the time this book was written, women were just starting to work and they had certainly never owned their own business, and Deborah will not give up till she manages to fulfil her dream.
My favourite quote is "You adopted me, but you never truly accepted me as your own and for that, Leslie De Kronengold, you deserve every bit of misfortune about to befall you." Yes, I loved this quote. It really touched me because as a reader I was really beginning to feel a lot of personal hatred towards the fictional Mr. Kronengold, who as Deborah said, adopted but never accepted her. It really struck me that when Deborah said this, it was the voice of the vulnerable child who had been in desperate need of love or simply acceptance from her "father" and was instead given hatred and abuse, who spoke.
Something I learnt, or rather that I was reminded of was that, the future really is up to you. When times seem bleakest, fight because you know that you're not going to achieve anything by just sitting there and moping.
Hey Ms Berry! Hope you're not too tired from marking our reviews! Good Luck!
March 14, 2017
For me the best part was learning all the ins and outs of the finance world. The story dragged a little for me, but I was intrigued enough to want to finish to find out how everything ties together in the end.
January 6, 2018
Buenisimo!
May 2, 2025
Read 7/1988
February 18, 2020
Despojada de toda riqueza, Deborah debe abandonar la casa familiar y comenzar desde cero. Ella levantará un imperio y desafiará a su padre luchando por obtener el control de un poderoso banco europeo.
Deborah de Kronengold parece tenerlo todo. Belleza, encanto y una inteligencia precoz, cualidades que cautivaron a su abuelo Samuel, el constructor del imperio. Todo el equilibrio de su niñez se derrumbó cuando Deborah se enteró que era hija adoptada. Para peor pronto se le hizo evidente la mala voluntad de su padre.
La muerte del abuelo, junto con la misteriosa desaparición de su testamento que la designaba heredera universal, son los detonantes de una lucha atroz con Leslie, su padre. Despejada de toda riqueza, Deborah debe abandonar la casa familiar y comenzar desde cero. Ella levantará un imperio que desafiará a su padre.
Hija de banqueros es también una novela con historias de amor que se entrelazan. Bash, el primer amor de Deborah, cuyo origen le impide ser lo que él quiere. David, que le ofrece riqueza, seguridad y adoración, le exige como precio renunciar a la venganza. Por fin, surge una historia de amor en la lejana Italia, destinada a revelar los misteriosos orígenes de Deborah.
Recuerdo que me gustó mucho la trama por la fuerza del personaje femenino; pero no me ha resultado memorable porque no terminó con el final feliz que me hubiera gustado.
Deborah de Kronengold parece tenerlo todo. Belleza, encanto y una inteligencia precoz, cualidades que cautivaron a su abuelo Samuel, el constructor del imperio. Todo el equilibrio de su niñez se derrumbó cuando Deborah se enteró que era hija adoptada. Para peor pronto se le hizo evidente la mala voluntad de su padre.
La muerte del abuelo, junto con la misteriosa desaparición de su testamento que la designaba heredera universal, son los detonantes de una lucha atroz con Leslie, su padre. Despejada de toda riqueza, Deborah debe abandonar la casa familiar y comenzar desde cero. Ella levantará un imperio que desafiará a su padre.
Hija de banqueros es también una novela con historias de amor que se entrelazan. Bash, el primer amor de Deborah, cuyo origen le impide ser lo que él quiere. David, que le ofrece riqueza, seguridad y adoración, le exige como precio renunciar a la venganza. Por fin, surge una historia de amor en la lejana Italia, destinada a revelar los misteriosos orígenes de Deborah.
Recuerdo que me gustó mucho la trama por la fuerza del personaje femenino; pero no me ha resultado memorable porque no terminó con el final feliz que me hubiera gustado.
January 19, 2010
This was a very looooong story, but a good one. It took me a while to finish this book, but I never once thought about not finishing it. The twists of fate that the main character experienced could be very easily imagined. I was feeling some of the hatred that she had for the man who had adopted her many years ago, but had never truly accepted her as his own. This story was about a very strong woman who built up an empire from nothing and vowed to get her revenge on the man who kept her from everything she should have inherited. I highly recommend it to any one who enjoys a good story - just be sure you have the time to commit.
April 10, 2014
I won this free through goodreads. Simply elegant and an upcoming classic. It was told very straight forward and in a more relatable way than most stories. The imagery was alright, but nothing spectatular and it had a steady, even-flowing plot line. I loved the ending and it took me around a week to complete of only reading it before bed. It was very good, but not my kind of page-turner. Would be great for more adults, and for spare time reading than for fun.
September 18, 2009
This is one of my favorite books. Don't confuse it with Nora Roberts book with the same Title. This author, Joseph Amiel, writes a classic with his "Birthright". It is set in the financial world and shows what you can do with fortitude, even when the deck seems stacked against you.
April 24, 2014
I won this in a goodreads giveaway. I absolutely adored this book.The main character Deborah was awesome so powerful but likeable as she strived against the family establishment.Thank you so much for the wonderful read
September 1, 2018
I love it when someone writes about empowering women. It gives me a drive to achieve my goals. This book is one of the masterpieces that would inspire women like me.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews